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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
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of Mahomedan saints and half-saints, Shams-i-Tabrez, and others, set up as messengers of the new faith is a special feature of Radha-Swami-ism.
This practically disposes of all important religions. Of the remaining ones, Shintoism, the religion of Japan, is a jumble of ancestor-worship, demonology, witchcraft and divination. Immortality of the soul was, however, clearly recognised in Japan, and many divine heroes and illustrious personages were believed to have been trans. lated to the "plain of High Heaven" (ERE. I. 457).
Babism or Bahaism which is centred round the my. stic teaching about the last Imam of the Muslim church, who is said to be biding his time to appear at the end of the world is a recent offshoot of Islam, its founder claiming to be the missing Imam in person.
Amongst the Indian creeds, Kabir Panth, Dadu Panth, Sikhism and Arya Samaj are some of the newer faiths, arising in response to some kind of a need felt by their respective founders in their time. For instance,
Sikhism was originally intended to reconcile both · Hinduism and Islam, though ultimately bitterer bostili
ty arose between Mabomedans and Sikhs than that · which bad originally prevailed between Hindus and Mahommedans. All these faiths are devotional in nature, and they all subscribe to the doctrine of transmigration. Of the remaining Indian religions, BrahmoSamaj is the wersternised Ishvara-vada (one-god cult)
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